Need Advice: Complete Tank Re-Do.

Chris918 · 09/02/2017, 11:26 PM

Hey guys. I have a 45 gallon JBJ all in one aquarium in my office. It has been running for 4 months. The tank has one small damsel and some soft corals. It has plenty of flow and lighting, but it has plenty of problems. To start it has plenty of brown algae in it. It has covered all of the rock and creeps up on the glass frequently. The other issue is that the sand is covered in cyano I believe. The corals have shown no stress, inverts are fine, and the fish is happy as can be. I have had no losses. I also feed very sparingly. I have limited my lighting to 6 hours a day and I've raised it 10 inches over the tank instead of the recommended 6-8. I run a BRS dual reactor with GFO and Carbon that is changed regularly. I did not cure the rock I used. I used BRS dry rock. My guess is perhaps this rock is leeching phosphate? It was advertised as their "cleanest" rock. Still I made the error of not curing it. I do water changes every week.

Now here is my proposed solution. I recently cured a batch of Pukani rock. I used some of it in my new build, but I still have plenty left to use. It did not stay submerged however and is just sitting on a shelf in my basement ready to use. It has been dry for about 3 weeks. I planned on doing a 20 gallon water change, changing out the rock with the pukani rock, cleaning all the pumps, sand, glass and hoping for better results.

Is this rock safe to use since I haven't left it in the water? I cured the rock for 8 weeks and have had no issues at all in my new build. It has more lighting and hasn't had a single algae issue. I also have a very small Zoa frag covered in hair algae. Likely an issue from the tank it came from. I cannot get the algae off and I end up doing more harm to the coral then the algae. How do I proceed here? Do I let the coral go to avoid more algae issues? Unsure how to proceed. My main concern is that removing the rock and exchanging it with this new rock (provided it is safe to use) may cause an issue? I really want to get this tank back on track and looking beautiful again, but as I said it is very disheartening and frustrating.

Sorry for the novel. Please offer advice if you can. Thank you.

pH: 7.8-8.0
Salinity: 1.026
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 5-10 (varies)
Phosphate: 0 (obviously being used up by all the brown algae covering the rocks and glass).
Flow: 1500 GPH
Lighting: Kessil A360. (6-7 hours per day raised higher than recommended)

09/02/2017, 11:26 PM	#1
Chris918 Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2016 Posts: 174	Need Advice: Complete Tank Re-Do. Hey guys. I have a 45 gallon JBJ all in one aquarium in my office. It has been running for 4 months. The tank has one small damsel and some soft corals. It has plenty of flow and lighting, but it has plenty of problems. To start it has plenty of brown algae in it. It has covered all of the rock and creeps up on the glass frequently. The other issue is that the sand is covered in cyano I believe. The corals have shown no stress, inverts are fine, and the fish is happy as can be. I have had no losses. I also feed very sparingly. I have limited my lighting to 6 hours a day and I've raised it 10 inches over the tank instead of the recommended 6-8. I run a BRS dual reactor with GFO and Carbon that is changed regularly. I did not cure the rock I used. I used BRS dry rock. My guess is perhaps this rock is leeching phosphate? It was advertised as their "cleanest" rock. Still I made the error of not curing it. I do water changes every week. Now here is my proposed solution. I recently cured a batch of Pukani rock. I used some of it in my new build, but I still have plenty left to use. It did not stay submerged however and is just sitting on a shelf in my basement ready to use. It has been dry for about 3 weeks. I planned on doing a 20 gallon water change, changing out the rock with the pukani rock, cleaning all the pumps, sand, glass and hoping for better results. Is this rock safe to use since I haven't left it in the water? I cured the rock for 8 weeks and have had no issues at all in my new build. It has more lighting and hasn't had a single algae issue. I also have a very small Zoa frag covered in hair algae. Likely an issue from the tank it came from. I cannot get the algae off and I end up doing more harm to the coral then the algae. How do I proceed here? Do I let the coral go to avoid more algae issues? Unsure how to proceed. My main concern is that removing the rock and exchanging it with this new rock (provided it is safe to use) may cause an issue? I really want to get this tank back on track and looking beautiful again, but as I said it is very disheartening and frustrating. Sorry for the novel. Please offer advice if you can. Thank you. pH: 7.8-8.0 Salinity: 1.026 Ammonia: 0 Nitrite: 0 Nitrate: 5-10 (varies) Phosphate: 0 (obviously being used up by all the brown algae covering the rocks and glass). Flow: 1500 GPH Lighting: Kessil A360. (6-7 hours per day raised higher than recommended)